How do you smoke marijuana on the Sabbath without smoking? The Jewish mind has come up with a patented solution. Lior Meshulam, who was presribed medical marijuana for chronic pain, used to suffer every Shabbos when he was prohibited from smoking his pain reliever.

“Every Shabbat was a de facto process of detox, in which the body becomes paralyzed,” he described. “Either you go to bed after every meal and try to sleep the Sabbath away, or you are angry, on edge and suffering from the entire Shabbat.”

Over the past year, the 50-year-old has been working on what is supposed to be the “ultimate solution” for the Shabbos-observant patient: a way of smoking marijuana without being mechalel Shabbos.

According to Meshulam, the device evaporates the material that is inserted into it within 10 minutes or so, and a small fan pushes the steam into the bag above. When the bag is filled with the vapor, one disconnects it from the appliance, attaches it to a cigarette holder and smokes.

The device, called “Elor,” got the seal of approval from the Tzomet Institute, which seeks to integrate Jewish law into the modern world. Rabbi Menachem Perl, dean of the Tzomet Institute, explains that halacha permits the use of the device on Shabbos as there is no act of lighting or extinguishing a flame.